Motivated by the periodic ripples observed in bent multi-walled nanotubes, we use
macroscopic ideas to derive geometric scaling laws for the wavelength and amplitude of ripples in
elastic scrolls and multi-walled tubes. Remarkably, our predictions are independent of material
properties, and thus have a range of validity varying from the atomic to the macroscopic even for
relatively large deformations. We verify this using experimental data that vary over six orders
of magnitude in length, ranging from millimeters to nanometers obtained using materials as
disparate as rubber and graphite.